Thursday, June 21, 2012

Gamers Are Awful. Basically.

The Internet is generally a
terrible place. If you’re new to the worldwide web, sorry to spoil it for you.
But if you’re the kind of person that loves to look up the destroyed face of
that dude in Florida in the “zombie” attack, then the Internet is the perfect
place for you.

While I enjoy a Fail
Compilation just as much as the next person, most websites are crawling with
trolls more often than they are contributors that are actually bringing
something meaningful to the table.

My personal belief is that
Internet anonymity as a culture is trickling into every day life in the worst
ways possible. See Glenn Beck for further details.

The Internet might be an
especially disturbing place, but at least for the most part people can get on
their copy of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” and enjoy some of their spare time
blowing shit up without causing a global incident. However, the gamer community
is a pretty rancid place, and sometimes, it’s worse than the Internet in
general.

That’s saying something
because I haven’t found any listings for “2 Spartans One Cup” when I go into
Matchmaking playlists. So the content variance is huge, and in that regard I’m
not going to waste my time, because trying to say “Dead Space” is as bad as
some of the stuff you can find online is a waste of breath and not true at all.

Where the biggest problem
lies is with the content users. Every game that has an online component now
comes with a standard ESRB rating system that has the disclaimer “If you get
yelled at by some dick face with a microphone you can’t sue Ubisoft/Activision/Sam
Worthington”.

Sam Worthington working out his
demons for all his career choices thus far.

Every game has to do this
now because invariably, you will run into someone that managed to purchase an
Xbox screaming expletives I don’t even want to type.

Not everyone is terrible,
and there can be some pretty generous teammates in whatever game you play, but
online gaming communities are the best example of people hiding behind an
avatar.

Video games are a showcase
now, a place for suitors to go out and vie for the attention of their potential
mate. Except in this case the mate isn’t a person, and instead it’s Major
League Gaming.And gamers will do
ANYTHING to gain an edge, even if it means taking you down verbally.

Or at least trying to.

I have fallen victim to at
least one problem of the gaming world and it can best be exemplified by this
meme I’ve recently seen floating around the web:

I’ve uttered both sides of this
statement AND had it said to me.

Gaming allows a unit of
measurement. And that makes it terrible. If someone can provide “empirical”
evidence that you aren’t good at something, they’ll rip you to shreds for being
terrible at that thing. But if someone can “prove” that you’re way better than
them at it only a few moments later, they’ll rip you apart for spending far too
much time indoors in a dark room harboring violent tendencies via an electronic
medium.

Online gaming has deep roots
in trolling, or vice versa, I don’t know which. And from first hand experience,
there is a certain adrenaline rush that occurs during a heated match, so maybe
there’s some physiological desire to just flaunt your skills like a douche or
hang your head in shame like a n00b.

Gamers catch a lot of flack
from the outside world, and they’re not benefiting themselves by being
egomaniacal douches on top of it. There’s a lot of work to be done outside of
cracking down hardcore on online behavior policies. Especially where those policies pertain to sexism and the legions of fanboys asking to see some tits.

Unfortunately no game
developers are going to throw the book at any of their generous customers. So
until gamers themselves become responsible, the culture won’t change.

“Lag at thee!”

Dan Ingram works in television and has his Master's in Screenwriting from New York Film Academy.If he could live in a Ghostbusters costume while driving the Delorean, he'd basically never complain about anything ever again.